Solis condominiums are coming to Capitol Hill. The building will be constructed at 1300 E Pike St and will be built using super-green "passive house" design and constructions methods.

Solis will be a 6 story building with 45 condominium homes. The units will be between 475sf and 850sf consisting of studios, one and two bedrooms. They will be priced from the mid $400,000s to just about $1 million. Construction will begin in the next few months with completion set for early 2020 according to the Developer, SolTerra.

The contractor is Cascade Built, a leader on passive house projects, and the architect is Weber Thompson.

This building was originally planned as an apartment building but will now be the first condominium building to be constructed in Capitol Hill in ten years.

The tower you see rising up at 121 Stewart St right by the Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle will be The Emerald condominiums.

Developed by Daniels Real Estate, the Emerald will contain 365 condominiums in 40 stories. The sales gallery will open for sales in early 2019.

Their website describes the tower as "bringing a new level of high-rise living to downtown Seattle. The tower's iconic, façeted-glass exterior houses a collection of 265 signature residences with unrivaled views and breathtaking amenity spaces." Based on the plans submitted to the city, the Emerald will have one, two and three bedroom condos ranging in size from 540 to 1,700 square feet. It will have retail on level one and amenities including a gym, yoga studio, pet area, guest suite and rooftop level party room and outdoor space.

We look forward to seeing the renderings, unit finishes and confirmed amenity offerings along with the price points.

We have received a ton of questions about the potential local improvement district (LID) assessment for the waterfront improvements that would affect some property owners in Downtown Seattle, Belltown and South Lake Union.

Since we live in the boundaries of the LID we received additional information on the proposed assessment and thought we would summarize what we know for our readers:

The Seattle City Council passed a Resolution declaring their intent to initiate the formation of the LID to construct certain elements of the Waterfront Seattle Program

The LID is a funding tool by which property owners are assessed to help fund the costs of a public improvement that they benefit from by way of a increased property value due to the improvement (special benefit)

The LID assessment cannot exceed the property's total special benefit

The LID only pays for a portion of the Waterfront improvements

It is the city's intent that the LID shall be a one-time assessment and shall not include any future supplemental assessments

There are still public hearings you can attend where you can submit your public comments in support of or objecting to the LID

The preliminary assessment percentage is 48.23% of the estimated special benefit of the LID improvements for each specific property

What we heard from our readers and neighbors, who own residential property in the LID boundary, was that they anticipated having to be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars for their LID assessment. This was causing a bit of panic for people and causing several of those concerned to sell or consider selling their properties to avoid having to pay the LID assessment. We were also hearing concerns voiced from potential buyers that they didn't want to buy a condo within the boundary of the LID not knowing what they would be on the hook for in terms of this LID assessment amount.

I would think that this information will help quell people's fears a bit as it is much less than we heard most people were anticipating. Hopefully this news, and the Head Tax being squashed, will help the Downtown area condo market to heat back up and maybe open the dam a bit on the buyers who were sitting on the sidelines fearing the Head Tax and LID assessment repercussions.

Laconia Development, who is developing the triangle shaped lot located at 600 Wall St, has announced that they will be building condominiums and not apartments.

The 41 story building will be called Spire and they will break ground today. There will be 352 residences from studios to 3 bedroom plus den homes. They are indicating that pricing will range from $450,000 to over $5 million. This Developer will also allow units to be combined. Amenities will include 2 rooftop decks. They anticipate the construction to take 28 months due to the challenges associated with the small sized lot.

This switch from apartments to condos reflects the softening rental market due to the influx of new buildings being constructed and the condo price increases that we are seeing in our current real estate market.

Being located on the intersection of Denny Way, Wall St (the current off-ramp from Aurora) and 6th Avenue is a definitely a busy intersection to be located on. We will see if that location in Belltown can fetch prices near $5M.

This story has been updated after a recent email interview with a representative of the developer, Douglaston Development:

According to the PSBJ, a new ruling by Seattle's hearing examiner will further delay construction on the 48 story tower planned just east of Escala Condominiums, where Icon Grill was located, at 5th Avenue and Virginia Street.

The residents of Escala have appealed the construction of the tower as it is currently planned, specifically taking aim at the tower being as close as 22 feet away across the alley, which would devastatingly affect their natural light and privacy. The city's examiner agreed with the Escala residents on that point pushing the issue to the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections to research, but ruled in the Developer, Douglaston Development's, favor on almost all of the other issues at the hearing.

Douglaston is now working on what options they have with regards to modifying the tower to address the issues raised by the Escala residents.

According to Douglaston CEO Michael Kaye, “During the design review process, we made major modifications to the design of the project to address the issues raised by Escala.”

Escala residents do have the option to appeal the city examiner's rulings against them to King County's Superior Court but they have not yet decided if they will proceed with any appeals.

It seems as if this ruling will delay the construction but not put a stop to it, so hopefully Escala's concerns can convince the Developer to redesign the new apartment and hotel tower to be set back farther from the alley and Escala preserving as much natural light and privacy as they can.

However, according to the developer speaking on the ruling , they indicate " the remand is actually on the procedural issue – not substantive", according to Kaye. "There is no reference in the remand regarding the distance between the two buildings."

Kaye would like to “reiterate Douglaston’s gratification that the Hearing Examiner ruled in our favor on almost every issue. Escala’s appeal was rejected on 22 out of the 23 claims made. Lastly, we’re committed to the project and we’ll keep working on it until it is built — we will continue to work through the process.”

It will be interesting to see the outcome here as many condominium buildings in Seattle face this same or similar problem of loosing light and privacy due to a new larger and taller tower being constructed around them.

Soon, at 1916 Boren Ave, a two tower project will rise comprising of a hotel and residential units. The developer, GZI out of China, has not yet revealed if the residential portion of the project will be apartments or condos.

The project, designed by Gensler Architects, will have two towers out of one podium, one tower at 16 stories and one at 48 stories. The podium will have retail on the ground level with 9 levels of hotel above to include approximately 280 hotel rooms. In the smaller tower will rise 6 stories of residential over the hotel and then in the taller tower will be 38 stories of residential over the hotel, to include around 500 units. There will also be two amenity levels, to include a gym and a podium-top roof deck, and underground parking. The taller tower will twist by stepping out from the base over the shorter tower and then stepping back in on the opposite side of the tower at the top, changing the massing as it goes up. This design is intended to compliment the twisting cubes of the NEXUS condominium tower nearby and add interest to the skyline.

At this point, we will have to wait to see whether or not we will have more apartments entering the pipeline or more condominiums for sale with the addition of this new project.

Amenities: numerous outdoor gardens, a roof deck with outdoor fireplaces and BBQs, a large co-working space that will share the ground floor with an eclectic mix of retail and dining options, bicycle room and underground parking

Blocks from amenities, restaurants, cafes and services of Columbia City and across the street from the Link Light Rail station (15 minutes to Downtown!)

Occupancy in 2019

SALES DETAILS:

Prospective buyers will be able to reserve a home in advance of presales by putting down a fully-refundable $5,000 deposit held in escrow confirming a particular home with a set price range, and will be granted a first right of opportunity to enter into a presale just as soon as the developer is able to confirm the product offering

The reservation event is now scheduled to take place in June—exact date TBD

6 of 32 units are unparked - all 4 of the studios on floor 1 along with two of the 1 bedrooms have no parking

All 32 units have storage

Common roof deck with views of Green Lake

1st floor studios have private patios

4th floor units have private roof decks and some also have decks off of the living space as well

Units have mini-split heating and air conditioning

Sales are going straight to Purchase and Sale and require 5 % earnest money, however their Public Offering Statement (POS) is not recorded so they are estimating that they will have closings 60 days after the POS is ready for buyer review

According to a recent PSBJ article, the owners of Northgate mall will be taking on a major overhaul of the property to include reducing the retail space and adding in its place office space, residential units, restaurants and a hotel. This is exciting as this north Seattle neighborhood has started to become known for its aging mall (though it does have my wife’s favorite shoe store, DSW!) and the big box stores of Target and Best Buy across the street. This image and the mall itself will be getting a substantial face lift. No, let’s call it a complete makeover!

The new mall will have the ground floor areas remaining as retail and restaurants while above that would be a mix of hotel, multifamily residential, and office space. They are also talking about adding green space that the neighborhood can enjoy and benefit from!

While this topic might not seem important to a condominium blog, we disagree. Northgate is going through a bit of a renaissance. With the new light rail station coming soon, able to whisk people into Downtown in 14 minutes, we believe the neighborhood will soon be booming when it comes to real estate popularity. Now add to that the redevelopment of the Northgate mall to include more neighborhood amenities, we think Northgate will be the next up and coming neighborhood in Seattle that will experience higher than average appreciation.

Hopefully the residential portion of the Northgate mall redevelopment will include at least some condominiums to help with the extreme shortage of newer condominiums in our city. While this is not yet known, we’ll cross our fingers that the developers are able to deliver some pre-sale condo opportunities. What we hear most from buyers is that they want to be close to amenities with an easy and short commute into Downtown and South Lake Union, so it seems like a great opportunity for that. Of course, not all people work Downtown or near a light rail stop, but for those that do, the light rail is a real benefit and directly affects real estate demand. Look at how much Columbia City and Hillman City have boomed since the light rail went in on the south end of the city. With the addition of restaurants, cafes and a more modern retail, this neighborhood will have tons to walk to. If your job relocates to the new office space there, you will be even better off.

Amenities and transit, coming soon to Northgate. And hopefully, condos.

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About the Authors

Marco Kronen is the co-author and a condo Realtor. He and Wendy have worked together serving clients in Seattle since 2007. Feel free to contact Marco here.
Wendy Leung is the founding editor of the Seattle Condo Review. She's also a full-service Seattle realtor.